March Finale: The Once and Future Witches- Alix E. Harrow

Hi there!

Welcome to our March Finale for Alix E. Harrow's 2020 novel The Once and Future Witches.

Trigger Warning: kidnapping of infant, death, suicide, witch-hunt and witch burning, graphic descriptions of burning alive

Overall

This ABSOLUTELY needs to be a film or a show - we need to SEE the magic and the fairytale aspects of this story. The commentary of women's rights combined with the concept of magic in the spaces between was phenomenal. We also really loved how different cultures had different spells and traditions in their magic. Everything felt plausible and connected - the true natural cultural traditions combined with magical talents really blew us away.

We also loved that the characters grew up with the stories that most of us real humans also grew up with, but they knew they were TRUE and had magical powers.

Cleo and Bella are so cute; August and Agnes? ALSO cute. Ceraya was on board with these romantic ships very quickly. These characters were so believable in their romances, that we fell in love with them too.

We LOVED the finale in which Juniper (now dead) ends the story in the best way possible. Juniper's character is eternally just going to have an attitude no matter what and we love her for it.

Women's Rights

This story is so incredibly well-thought-out it's not even funny. (But this book did have some funny moments, don't get me wrong.)

The concept that witching has been around and passed down from woman to woman orally, through nursery rhymes, and even through dance, singing, and constellations, was really a lovely way to portray the strength of women. The almost invisible ways that women stay strong generationally and pass down the wisdom of life are so authentically represented in this book. Women in real life do this. We pass down information one way or another to other women, and in some instances, in secret. Which holds power.

Men, like Gideon, exact revenge on women for selfish reasons and are very much real. In fact, he (and so many other men) punishes women for being independent and unique. And women become independent and unique either way, in order just to live their lives, and some men hate that. Boo fucking hoo.

We LOVED that different cultures were represented with their own interesting forms of magic, and different minorities were (accurately) depicted as being rejected by the white women who were searching for women's rights themselves, as flaws still exist, even while searching for justice.

We have so much more to say on the podcast about women's rights - so check it out here.

Conclusion

This book is well worth the read—please go out of your way to enjoy it!!! It is fun, action-packed, and also poignant.

See you soon!

Ceraya & Brieanna